By Michal Lev-Ram

What do Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, search company Google (GOOG) and energy giant Chevron (CVX) have in common? All three are potential bidders on the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) upcoming wireless airwaves auction.

The bidding for the coveted 700 MHz spectrum (originally used for analog TVs) doesn’t start until January 24, but late yesterday the FCC released the names of the 266 companies and individuals who have applied to bid. Wireless veterans like Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) were on the list,  but so were lots of unconventional hopefuls - including a media company, cable operators and a chipmaker. It’s long been known that Google had its sights set on the prize (at least that’s what the company’s said publicly), but many of the other non-telco applicants on the list came as a surprise.

The diversity of the companies on the list is an indication of the changing wireless landscape in the United States. Just a few years ago, a Silicon Valley company wouldn’t have gotten involved in a spectrum auction - they would have left that challenge to the telcos. But as the future becomes increasingly mobile, everyone wants a piece of the wireless pie.

“With new and upcoming technologies, consumers are going to be able to go mobile with full Internet capacity, and that’s driving non-wireless players to say ‘Hey, we need to be in mobile too’,” says Charles Golvin, a wireless analyst with Forrester Research.

That’s also led to a push to “open up” the U.S. industry - traditionally controlled by mobile operators’ tight grip on phonemakers, developers and, of course, consumers. That’s why Google, unable to spread its mobile applications as freely as it would like, lobbied the FCC to make the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum open to all devices, regardless of who wins the auction.

But, despite the changes afoot, it’s unlikely Google or any of the other unconventional bidders will actually win licenses in the auction.

“I personally believe that we’re not going to see a lot of new entrants in the actual building out of networks,” says Golvin, who expects AT&T and Verizon to be the most aggressive bidders. “Operating networks is only for the few and hearty souls.”

By Stephanie Mehta 

In case you missed it, today marks the deadline for submitting paperwork to the Federal Communications Commission for bidding in the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction. Search-engine giant Google (GOOG) says it will participate, and analysts expect competing bids from Verizon Wireless — a joint venture of Verizon (VZ) and Vodafone (VOD) — and AT&T (T).

Google certainly has the financial firepower to make a winning bid. (The FCC essentially has set opening bids for the “C” block of licenses at $4.6 billion) But is Google in this auction to make a point, or is the company in it to win it?

We’re certainly seeing some strange body language out of Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. On the one hand, you’ve got Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google, blogging last week that “regardless of which bidders ultimately win the auction, consumers will be the real winners…” Not exactly the posturing of a company that plans to do whatever it takes to grab the spectrum. Lynette Luna at Fierce Broadband Wireless predicts the wireless incumbents will prevail in the upcoming 700 MHz bidding.

And yet Google certainly has been ramping up its activities in the wireless arena lately, with its Open Handset Alliance and new location-based, GPS-like application for cell phone users.

Phil Asmundson, who heads up Deloitte & Touche’s technology, media and entertainment group,  is among those who think Google is playing for keeps. Sure, Google isn’t a phone company today, but, he says, Google owns “more dark fiber than any one else in the U.S.” (Dark fiber is fiberoptic cable that has been installed, but has not been “lit” with the necessary telecom equipment to transmit data and calls.) Asmundson adds: “It has a network that could lit relatively easily, and become a telecom company overnight.”

“I do think if you are an established player, you have to take Google seriously.”

Techland readers, what do you think: Is Google bidding in the upcoming spectrum auction with the ambition of becoming an alternative wireless operator, or has it already “won” by forcing the bidders to adhere to certain “open access” conditions, and by getting companies such as Verizon to announce plans to open its network to unlocked wireless devices?